D.I.Y Curry

One of my 2012 resolutions was to cook properly - well, at least twice a month - and last night I got cracking on my first meal. I'm a big fan of Indian food (incidentally, six weeks until I go!) and with a little help from Hare's Moor (and Olly), a yummy Timatar Masala was made.

The kits contain all the spices, vegetables, bay leaves, chillies etc to make your curry - in the right quantities - but it's all fresh so you have to prepare everything yourself, such as peeling and grating the ginger and garlic, or deseeding and chopping up the chillies. (However, if you want it HOT, then remove the membrane, chop the chillies up, but add the seeds into the curry instead of discarding them.) All you need to buy is the meat you want to use, tomatoes, your rice and any side dishes you may want. It says on the packet serves 2-3, but I'd say 3 would make the portion sizes a little bit stingy.

After preparing all the ingredients, you place the first spice pack and the curry leaves into a heated oil pan, then add the chopped onions after cooking for a few seconds.

Cook until the onions are soft and light brown, for about 10 minutes. Add the chili, ginger and garlic and cook these for a few minutes.

Once that's looking good, add the next spice pack, followed by the tomatoes and salt. Either a medium tin of chopped tomatoes will suffice, or 3-4 tomatoes if you want to make this 100% home-made. Cook for a further few minutes, then add the meat. We went for chicken and used 3 fillets, chopped up into bite-size chunks.  

Stir, then add water so that the chicken is half covered. Bring to boil and simmer with the lid semi-on for about 25 minutes - remember to keep stirring! About 5 minutes before you take off the lid at this stage, get cooking your rice and anything else. We had this with basmati rice that we seasoned with salt, red bell peppers, cinnamon, black pepper, cardamom, turmeric, cloves, bay leaves and fennel, and had some garlic and coriander naan bread (I will learn to make this!) to mop up the yummy curry sauce.

Once your 25 minutes are up, add the final spice pack and stir well. Once the curry sauce is at the appropriate thickness for your taste, serve and enjoy! Oh, but make sure you remove the cassia bark before you do. {^_^} Absolutely yummy.